Python Embrace
by lilmisgenetic
Summary: They say that love conquers all things. Even fear. Even war. Even hate. I can remember a gap in my life where I did not believe that. Charis Cobriana...
1. Chapter 1

Python Embrace

Prologue

They say that love conquers all things. Even fear. Even war. Even hate. I can remember a gap in my life where I did not believe that. I used the fear, war, and hate to push me on to what I thought I wanted or at the very least try to fill the emptiness that loss had left behind.

It did not work of course, and today I believe that I still suffer from my childhood actions.

I cannot change them.

I cannot escape them.

I can only hope that they do not take all I have left.

Charis Cobriana

Chapter 1

I walked hurriedly down the hall back to my son's room where he lay dieing in his bed.

This would be his final hour. The nurse had told me so, though I would not have believed her if I had not believed it myself.

Avain poison, falcon acquired no doubt, had run its course through my son's cobra body, stealing his life, his very essence, away. It'd turned his rich tan skin to a pasty pale, and his dark hair looked as black as ever as cold sweat made it cling to his forehead.

The nurses stood back as I approached and kneeled by the bed of my dieing son.

"Carson?" I called to him, rubbing the hair gently from his eyes. Those same eleven year-old eyes looked up at me, the vibrant red mostly gone, leaving an unexpected violet where the blue he'd inherited from me mixed with the remainder of the garnet.

"There, there, my son." It was all I could do to keep from crying. Though the show of emotions was highly accepted to the point of being polite in serpiente society, I did not want the extent of this darling boy's condition to be betrayed to him by his mother's tears. "I am here now, Carson."

"Mother," his breath was ragged and hardly audible.

"Yes."

"I'm so tired…"

"Sleep my dear son. Sleep." I kissed his cool forehead then, gently savoring the action; it would be the last time I would carry it out.

"Mother."

"Yes?"

"T…tell me a story…" I tried my best to fight back the tears.

"Which one?"

"Anything…" His voice faded as he closed his eyes, but he was still breathing.

"Okay, okay. I'm going to tell you a story of your mother, me, when I was a young girl…"

and so my story began…


	2. Chapter 2

Ch2

Year: 745

I kneeled by my mother's side. She was in a rocking chair of elegant design, her sapphire blue eyes looking down at the new enfant in her arms. My brother Cobalt stood behind me with my father, a Serpiente general. My Sister Charlotte stood behind my mother's chair.

"What will you call the new baby, mother," she asked.

"Let's call it Sapphire," I suggested.

"Sapphire's a girl's name, Charis. The baby's a boy. He will grow up to be a man like me and Father. He will need to have a man's name."

I pouted not understanding my brother's sixteen year old logic. My father rose from his seat and took gentle yet powerful strides over to my mother. He looked intently down at the baby, to me, and then back to the baby. "He looks like a Carson to me. What do you think, Charis?"

With my father's lovingly doting, gray gaze on mine, I would have gladly agreed if he'd wanted to name the baby after a hawk. "I think Carson is a buh-yoo-tee-ful name!"

A second later my sister said, "If you keep doing that with your eyes, Cobalt, they will roll right out of your head.

My brother walked over to the family. "Carson is a fine name." Despite failing to persuade any sense into me, Cobalt playfully tossed my hair and smiled looking down at the baby.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful baby."

"Well of course," Charlotte said, "All of father's children are beautiful." She proudly flipped her hair behind her shoulder. At only age fourteen she had a hand full of suitors after her.

"Yes, indeed they are," he said before eyeing me mysteriously. He lifted me suddenly into the air in his powerful grip, and I laughed hysterically as he said, "Except for this one. She looks like a monkey!"

"Father, it's not in good practice to insult such fine creatures."

"Cobalt!"

"I'm only joking, mother," he smiled, though she new it to be true already.

"Yes, we are only kidding." My father looked at me suddenly serious. "You are so beautiful. Hair like silk ebony. And look at those eyes. Sapphires fit to sell in the finest market. Beautiful python you are. She will squeeze the life out of many men with just one look. Squeeze the life right out of their hearts." He smiled widely, and I kissed his cheek, after which he feigned suffocation.

The family broke into laughter that was only silenced by a demanding knock on the door.

"I wonder who that could be," my father voiced aloud, his face betraying his worry and discomfort.

"Cylus…" My mother gave a meaningful look to my father that caused my heart to beat as fast as a hawk's.

"Help your mother to her bed, Charlotte."

My sister did as she was told, while my brother dutifully followed my father to the door.

I stayed in the den only a few moments before trailing behind them myself. I arrived just in time to hear my father say, "This is my family's hideaway. I gave the specific order not to disturb them here. It could put them in danger"

Having been told that we were on a family vacation, I did not know this information, and in my young age, had not fully understood it.

I only understood that we were in a war and with that the words hiding and danger.

"Yes sir," the visitor said, "but there is a disturbance in the east market perimeter. We fear it needs your assistance."

"Very well," my father said after a brief pause. "Cobalt, bid your-" he'd seen me then.

"Charis, tell mother that father and I are attending a matter in the market," my brother ordered. "We will be back soon."

I only nodded, not moving until after they left.

I had not known then that they would never come back.


	3. Chapter 3

Python Embrace

Ch. 3

It was later that night. I lay across my mother, my head on her stomach. I was worried by what I'd over heard, and she was trying to sooth me with soft words of sisterly duty.

"Charis, it will be your job to look after little Carson, just as Charlotte looks after you, and Cobalt after her."

But I was too fearful to listen, and instead asked, "Why do we fight the Avians?"

Why do they hate us so much?

When my mother didn't answer, I looked up at her. Her face, along with the rest of the room, was given a blue light from the dark night and moon.

"They don't hate us, Charis."

"Cobalt says they do. He says that we'd all have knives in our backs if-"

"Shush. Your brother should not speak of such things to ears so young."

I buried my face in the covers over my mother's stomach again so that my words came out muffled. "I'm scared. Father and Cobalt went out to the market. They haven't come back yet. I'm scared. I want my papa, I want Cobalt…" The rest was cut off by sobs.

"Shh," my mother soothed. "They will come back soon." She said lifting my head and wiping away hot tears.

"But what if they don't? What if they-"

"Shh." I was too young to realize that I was distressing my mother. "Everything's going to be fine, Charis."

But my fear had turned to anger. "I hope they die. I hope all the avians die."

This caused my mother to sit up and in a stern voice she said, "Do not say that, Charis. Do not let fear and hate and thoughts of revenge consume you. You will never be happy. Always be kind. Always show mercy. Even to your enemies. Do not become the very thing which you hate and fear. Always be thoughtful of your actions. Everything you do –good or bad- will come back ten fold." Her voice became softer. "Remember my words, Charis. Remember them."

I nodded in obedience for it was my beloved mother who spoke to me, but it wouldn't be until years later, when I would be old enough to understand, that I finally would.

My mother sang me to sleep that night with a lullaby called Embrace.


	4. Chapter 4

Python Embrace

Ch. 4

I could hear the knocking on the door even from upstairs. It had woken my mother as well.

"Marta will get it," she answered my inquiring eyes drowsily, but when a second knock came, I bounced off the bed and walked hurriedly out in the hall. The dieing embers of the fire place was all the light that remained. Charlotte had come from the room we shared too and now put an arm around my shoulders as we walked toward the door.

The one maid we had had already answered it by the time we got there, and we could hear an urgent voice.

"…avian ambush. The general and his son have fallen in battle."

My sister gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. My heart caught in my throat. Papa. Cobalt.

"Wake the family, for immediate evacuation. We have to move quickly-"

Suddenly the entire house shook as half of the second floor exploded. The sound of wood cracking and glass breaking could be heard as my sister and I were thrown hard to the floor. My sister was half laid over me, and I had to move from under her in time to see the serpiente soldiers come into our home.

One swore, something I'd only heard my father do only once. The rest drew their knives. The front room was suddenly littered by firey arrows flitting through the glassless windows.

Flit, flit, flitflitflit!

A serpiente soldier went down.

All the sound caused my ears to ring and I could barely hear my mother calling out to me.

"Charis! Charis!"

The front door exploded inward as the first of the Avian soldiers came in. the maid was no longer standing in their way.

My mother was suddenly by me. "Charis, Charis, come on." She shook my Charlotte, but my sister did not move. My mother tried to drag her, but Charlotte's fourteen year old was too heavy for a woman who'd just recently given birth. Still she tried.

Another round of arrows, this time sharp and deadly. One glanced my mother's arm, "Ah," making her release her hold on Charlotte.

"Run!" A serpiente guard shouted, and we did. Arrows flitted behind us. We would reach the safety of Charlotte's and mine room first but when we got there, my mother cried, "The baby!" She pushed me in, just narrowly missing an arrow and ran down the hall.

I tried to follow, but was grabbed from behind. A hatchet swung my way and I screamed and ducked.

My mother who had herd me scream was now coming back for me.

"Charis!"

The avian aimed again. This time he would not miss. My mot her would not come to my rescue in time.

"Nooooooo!" she screamed.

I closed my eyes hoping the blow wouldn't hurt too much. I heard it, but I felt nothing. It was only when I opened my eyes to a serpiente guard killing my almost executioner that I realized I was still alive.

My mother took my hand and ran with me, the strain her body was taking making her heave out her breaths.

We reached my parents room where the baby was only to find it half tumbled.

My mother shoved me under a table, then ran to a pile that concealed the baby's bassinette.

"Carson…" but she found nothing in it.

A voice rang from outside in the hall. "Find them, kill them."

My mother quickly threw whatever had concealed the bassinette back over it now and dived under the table with me.

She stilled her breath, at the same time I saw a young python slithering around the pile with the bassinette. _Carson_. He'd changed forms.

I looked to my worried mother ready to show her, but the avian killers had come in and my voice froze in my throat. My mother was sweating profusely, her color was paling. I had a bad feeling that the fire or the height of our situation was not entirely to blame. My mother looked as though she would faint or at the very least lose focus, but her determined eyes stayed unwaveringly on the bassinette pile no doubt willing my brother not to changes forms again.

I peered more intently at my mother, thinking that our current ordeal and her recent delivery must have been why she looked so sick, but then my eyes trailed down to her are where the arrow had sliced her skin. _Poison_. My eyes began to feel with tears and my heart with dread.

Four footsteps (two avians in all) was all the sound that was heard along with the raging fire that cracked the wood of our house with every second.

Black smoke began to feel the room, and I threw my hand over my mouth so I wouldn't cough. The soldiers turned to leave, and my mother's eyes closed in relief…but then Carson began to cry…my mother's eyes flew open as she darted from under the table towards the pile before the avian could reach it first.

"Ahh!" The second guard was attacked. Miraculously Charlotte was there and had driven a dagger through the back of his skull while the other one repeatedly plunged a dagger into the back and side of my struggling mother.

My brother continued to cry.

My sister went for Carson.

The avian went for her.

I went for Carson unchallenged. I scooped him up and headed for the door.

"Charlotte!" I shouted.

She scuffled fiercely with the avian. "Run!"

I obeyed taking me and my brother away from the suffocating smoke but into the heat of the fire. The rafters began to fall and the room I'd just come from caved in.

My sister would not make it.

With the front way completely blocked by fire, I ran out the back way with Carson, who was no longer crying, in my arms, and into the blessed rain of a fast approaching dawn.


End file.
